From checking bank statements to booking flights, mobile phones have become integral to our everyday lives. In the near future, the number of mobile devices will exceed the world’s population, and by 2017, we expect more than 10 billion mobile devices to be used across the globe.

With this proliferation, public sector organizations are facing increasing pressure to accommodate the growing numbers of users expecting to be constantly connected regardless of who owns the device. The network must dynamically adjust in real-time to an exponentially growing and disparate number of devices and applications that demand immediate and secure connectivity.

In government organizations, comprehensive policies supporting BYOD initiatives are lacking. Many IT leaders still need to shift their strategies to include secure mobility within their security agenda. Read More »

A couple weeks ago, we spoke about the mobility journey and the phases that organizations take as they embrace the widely accepted mode of mobility—Beyond BYOD to Workspace Mobility (device-focus, application-focus and experience-focus). Whatever phase your organization is in, security is a top priority. These phases can help determine your secure mobility approach but your risk aversion level will also define it. Whatever your risk tolerance, the mobile threat landscape is extremely active and clever—do not underestimate it.

The dynamic nature of mobile threats does not stop by simply entering from your mobile device but it can further propagate and manifest across the network, wired devices, virtual, cloud and data center environments. So your secure mobility approach must be non-stop, continuous and pervasive—end to end. To hinder the chance of threat damage or inappropriate access whether intentional or not, one must offer comprehensive secure mobile access controls at the access layer across each phase of an attack, before, during and after.

Eleven days after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the first Director of the Office of Homeland Security was appointed leading to the combination of 22 different federal departments and agencies into a unified, integrated cabinet agency when it was established in 2002.

The Department has a vital mission to secure the U.S. from many threats with capabilities that range from aviation and border security to emergency response, from cybersecurity to chemical facility inspections.

The three day conference focused on a number of important topics including:

Worker mobility has become an essential practice for government agencies. From teleworking on the road to accessing critical data on your smart phone, mobility increases productivity and employee satisfaction. And the trend toward mobility is growing. In fact, the Cisco Visual Networking Index predicts there will be more than 10 billion mobile devices worldwide by 2017. With the increased proliferation of mobile devices comes the need to ensure that appropriate policies and procedures are in place so agencies can take advantage of increased capabilities while still maintaining high levels of security.

By and large, government agencies are doing a good job of balancing the need for mobility with security requirements. However, according to a new study by Mobile Work Exchange, which was commissioned by Cisco, 41 percent of government employees are putting agencies at risk with secure mobility habits. Clearly, there is some room for improvement.

The study used the Secure Mobilometer, an online self-assessment tool, to capture data from end-users and agencies. The tool ranked their mobility habits based on practices of user inputs, password protection, data loss prevention, mobile device policies and security training.

More and more we are seeing the education landscape change to include more technology for collaboration and mobile learning. Colleges and universities are enabling secure networks for staff and students to access resources on-campus and off. With October being National Cybersecurity Awareness Month (NCSAM) and Educause next week, we are hearing a lot of talk about the importance of campus network security and threats. Read More »

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